Recap: Kamen Rider Ghost, Episode 49 – Infinity! The Power of Humanity! and Season Wrap-up

The newly embodied Ganmaizer breaks through the glass ceiling because it feels humans are so illogically awesome. Everyone follows as the Ganmaizer hops through the monolith Gate and bursts through the temple roof, waking Narita and Shibuya.

Takeru, Makoto-niichan and Alain hop on their bikes to follow the yellow Ganmaizer thing downtown where it vows to change the world.

The Ganmaizer randomly turns night into day and the three henshin. An army of Ganma appear which Makoto and Alain try to fight off while Takeru goes after the Ganmaizer. A random new Rider also appears for no reason other than to promote a new TV show.

The Ganmaizer tells Takeru he’s miraculously amazing which is why he needs to be eliminated. Takeru wants to protect humanity’s infinite potential, so they battle.

Takeru tries to unleash all the emotions, but it doesn’t even leave a scratch on the Ganmaizer. The Ganmaizer proceeds to just wreck him.

Takeru is forced to dehenshin as the Ganmaizer takes on a giant form and sends huge, equally giant, immense waves through Japan and the world. Makoto and Alain foolishly try to kick the giant Ganmaizer, but they just get swatted away.

As soon as the others arrive to catch Makoto and Alain, the Ganmaizer begins zapping people with its eye, turning them into bright blue balls that get engulfed into its body.

Cubi and Onpu Ganma have just arrived in the city, but they immediately get blue balled as well.

Back at the temple, Yurusen tells Grampa Sennin to henshin and fight since this is all his fault anyway. But Sennin just crawls under the temple to curl up in a non-blue ball.

People around Tokyo continue getting blue balled, including a poor family of three. The Gang is all safe though. That is, until Alain decides he can henshin again and try another kick. But just as he is about to get blue balled by the eye, Javert pops up, knocks Alain away and absorbs the eye beam.

Javert says his life has all been for this moment; to sacrifice himself for Alain-sama. Which isn’t a bad thing, he says. Makoto-niichan says things are hopeless, but Akari still has hope in Takeru.

Takeru is still on the roof watching everything happen. He lies down, apologizing for being useless. But he suddenly hears his mother’s voice. He takes the Boost Eyecon out and is transported back in time.

Takeru sees his parents talking about his name before being born and then watches his mother say goodbye to him as she dies.

A vision of Papa Ryu appears and Takeru realizes his mother loved him until the end. He really was loved. Takeru says he will always be grateful to be his parents’ son. Papa Ryu dissolves.

Knowing that he is the fruit of his parents’ love, Takeru has a renewed resolve. Love is the most miraculous power of all and combined with all the other emotions, which the Great Ganmaizer Eye do not have, it can conquer all!

Takeru is henshined to Mugen and delivers a Love Bomber straight to the giant Ganmaizer’s eye which easily downsizes it back to normal.

Takeru dehenshins as the Ganmaizer lays on the ground. The Gang runs over to celebrate with him. But the Ganmaizer is still alive since we’re only halfway through this episode.

Everyone wishes Takeru well as he henshins once again, but just to regular Ghost. The other luminaries, however, join Takeru and they all work together to take on the Ganmaizer.

The Gang happily declares that Takeru is also a luminary all his own.

Takeru says he believes in himself as he launches into a rider kick that easily finishes off the Ganmaizer for good.

The Gang hobbles over to congratulate Takeru, but he suddenly gets pulled up into the Great Eye mandala once again where he meets that creepy girl who is apparently the physical form of the Great Eye energy.

She says Takeru doesn’t need to revive anymore because he has transcended and become immortal like them or something. But Takeru wants to eat with his friends.

The Great Eye understands Takeru wants to be human and alive again. But actually, Takeru says his wish is to resurrect all the people murdered and eaten by the Great Eye giant Ganma thing. The Great Eye offers to rebuild all the cities too, but Takeru says that’s not necessary. Humans can handle building things, but not resurrecting from the dead.

Actually, humans have infinite potential to connect. Same thing.

The Great Eye quickly brings everyone back to life including, but not limited to Javert, Cubi, Onpu Ganma, Jairo, Igor, that poor family, all the pod people.

The Great Eye also decides to gift Takeru one final present as it flies off in a Golden Quidditch Snitch. Yurusen and Grampa Sennin turn into Eyecons and disappear… only to wake up in a capsule that was at Daitenku Temple this whole time. Grampa Sennin is surprised to be in his own body again and realizes the Eyecon System is no more now that the Great Eye is gone. He’s also happy to see his cat… Yurusen.

Aria watches all the capsules open and the pod people rise. Cubi has a body and still wants to paint.

Takeru touches some glowing body in front of him. But it’s actually his body. He’s revived, resurrected, a real boy again. He falls from the sky, but is caught by the luminaries who recreate the season’s opening credits.

Takeru reunites with the Gang and his stomach growls. Takeru yells that he is hungry. Akari hugs him. They run back to the temple and meet up with Grampa Sennin and cat Yurusen.

Onari gives Takeru some onigiri and he eats it up.

Takeru has some final words about living life to the fullest.

Episode Thoughts

What happened?

Such a strange episode for me. There were times when I’m all “Yeah, that’s pretty cool, why didn’t we have more of this!” But then there were times when I was all “Are you serious? WTF is this?!”

Pretty representative of this entire season I think. This finale was just as confused as the season was. So, I guess that makes this the perfect ending?

First to this episode specifically, some of the things that happened this episode should’ve happened at least a few episodes ago. Not only did this episode feel like a random mishmash of “things” that happen, it felt hollow. And that’s worse than other possibilities because by feeling hollow, that means there’s some great material brought to the screen, but without any foundation or support to have it mean anything. Wasted potential, in other words. Regrets.

I mean, those wide shots of the city and the Great Eye zapping everyone was pretty epic and well done. Seeing all the people getting blue balled (*snicker*), especially nice, but mostly pointless Cubi and that poor family of three, was very sad. It would’ve been even more affecting if this plot wasn’t just introduced in the season’s penultimate episode.

Want more hollowness? The flashbacks of Papa and Mama Tenkuuji were sweet and sad. But now suddenly Takeru has mom issues?

“I was loved, wasn’t I?” What do you mean? You never had a problem about being loved. Everyone around him loved him. What was he talking about? Mama Tenkuuji was barely mentioned and her death and absence was never a part of the development (or lack thereof) of Takeru as a character. We got Narita’s mom issues. And I wouldn’t really call Mommy Adonis’ death a mom issue for them. But Takeru? No. So that whole sequence with Takeru about “love” was completely random.

And no, Onari randomly teasing Akari and Igor about being in love with Takeru and Akari (?!), respectively, does not count as story development.

The ending shot of the season is Takeru being excited to finally eat for the first time since dying. Okay. But I mentioned earlier in the season how we didn’t really get a lot of, if any, scenes showing the effect of Takeru being a “ghost.” They mentioned that whole “I want to eat with my friends” thing at the end of one random episode. But that was it.

Before we get to the meat of the season review, I will say that it was cute seeing Cubi’s suit actor at the end. That’s always a nice treat seeing the suit and/or voice actors on-screen. And Yurusen was a cat? And Sennin was in a capsule in the temple? Uh… whatever.

Now it’s time to dissect the season.

Season Thoughts

The main premise of this season is Takeru wanting to come back from the dead and that he has to collect Eyecons to do that. We are reminded of such at the beginning of every single episode. Collecting Eyecons should be easy, but there are Ganma who also want to collect them.

We are to infer that the Ganma need the Eyecons to maintain their perfect world, a utopia where no one gets sick or dies. A royal family of an Emperor, a Queen and four kids plus a Grandpa were in charge of this world of no-faced zombie-like things. (Or human-looking things in pods. Who knows.) And the perfect world was created after the Queen and eldest son died of a mystery illness.

While the Emperor prayed to a big monolith, the third oldest child rebelled and killed him for no apparent reason. He also kills Takeru’s father for no reason. That is, until Episode 48 where we learn Adel wanted all humans inside of his body just because he wanted to feel loved.

The youngest child realizes he wants to feel the wind on his face, the blue skies, the birds chirping and the taste of Japanese street food. The only daughter likes taking fierce model walks in dark, underground corridors.

And those capsules of unconscious human-looking bodies plus a mad scientist who apparently “loved” getting slapped across the face by a pretty lady.

What?

And that’s just the “villains.” Takeru’s father, a scientist buddy and a sketchy man in a hat that eventually disappears never to be heard of or mentioned again wanted to jump through portals. Takeru’s father set all these events in motion and predicting/knowing everything would go to hell, set it up so his son would have to carry the burden of fixing whatever his original plans would devolve into.

Then there’s a brother and sister who grew up (and enjoyed being) locked in hell. A scientist who wants to think she knows everything. A monk who likes screaming and running around. Two young monk apprentices who sweep floors. A Ganma killing machine with a human body who converts to Buddhism and likes onigiri.

Really, there’s no cohesion anywhere here. And if someone can deliver a concise summary of this season and present a clear outline of what it’s all about, then that person is awesome and a genius. I’m not that person.

I really wanted to love Ghost after the completely wasted potential of Drive. But as hollow as the explosive action was for those final 10-ish episodes, Drive was still exciting with each of the characters, at the very least, fleshed out. Not perfectly or timely, but especially compared to the characters here on Ghost, Shinnosuke and the SID crew as well as Heart, Brain and Medic were all distinct and reasonably-formed characters. Ghost? Not so much.

Ghost started off so well. An intriguing premise with a charming and likeable Shun Nishime as the title character. I held out hope for a long time, maybe because of my disappointment with Drive. But instead of revving up and getting to the meat of the season’s stories, Ghost seemed to wander off even more than it had been.

These final episodes have played out almost like normal mid-10s and 20s episodes. No sense of danger or excitement with plot points and/or characters randomly thrown in to give the impression that there actually was a story that needed to be dragged forward.

This final episode (and yes, I consider this the finale since Episode 50 is just that epilogue crossover stunt Toei now loves to do) was a great finale for a season that doesn’t exist.

Takeru realizing the power of love and the meaning and importance of life should have been his season-long arc. Making him appreciate his own life and living. Yes he put others’ lives before his own. But there should have been a better and more clear theme of life and death during the season. Not the generic “I’ll be a hero, save everyone” theme Ghost basically played on.

Life and death and emotions should’ve been the main, driving force of the season. At least based on the few, clearest things we did see during the season.

That applies to the Ganma too. We saw Alain, Javert and Cubi realize there’s more than just the dark, red Ganma world. There were flowers and birds and friends and painting fruit. There is such a thing as takoyaki and the joy of eating. All things that weren’t in the G World? We still don’t know what the hell Ganma are. But seeing a journey of the Ganma realizing there’s more to life and to being than what they’ve known would’ve been great. (Similar to what the Roidmude season-long story should’ve been last year as well.)

The lack of really an overarching theme is what made the season unfocused. The villains had no clear objective. So that left Takeru needing to collect Eyecons and being granted a wish as the main premise of the season. But when he got his wish a couple of episodes into the season, that should’ve been a sign of things to come. That is, there wouldn’t be much focus or direction or story left to tell.

The season just ran in circles with random twists that either were supposed to give the impression that there actually were cohesive stories or “Let’s just throw a bunch of cool moments to the wall and see what sticks.”

Well apparently, everything stuck to the wall because it felt like they included every single idea they had into the season without actually crafting stories around them.

A season about basic emotions and the connections or bonds people make that allow us to live life to the fullest. Random luminaries (not necessarily “heroes” in the traditional sense, but great, influential people) who are able to provide power to our hero by teaching them about basic emotions, bonds and living life to the fullest based on their life experiences.

That sounds like a pretty good show. I’d love to watch that show. Unfortunately, Kamen Rider Ghost was not that show.

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Ghost, Episode 49 – Infinity! The Power of Humanity! and Season Wrap-up”

Yeah, I have no idea what happened here either. So, the Great Eye was some golden alien? Sort of?

The thing is, Dear Ghost writers, good mindscrewy endings actually work because they were built up from the beginning. This one is not mindscrewy, it’s just a directionless attempt at an “ending”

What really annoys me here is the series’ habit of introducing plot points, then just forgetting about them a few episodes later and introducing totally unrelated new ones. Case in point, from the looks of it, there were supposed to be some backstory behind the Necrom, Deep Specter, and Grateful upgrades, but the series seems to have totally forgotten about them. So, we end up with our characters getting these powers from out of nowhere. And yeah, the Luminaries turn out to be not so important to the narrative after all.